Now if I’m honest, it’s taken years to tame my Inner Critic. It wasn’t an overnight victory. But it’s all happened through journaling. Through writing every day, I’ve learned to live in the present moment. I’ve cleared out the old messages that seemed to be stuck deep in the cells of my body. Managing my Inner Critic was a huge part of my journaling practice for many years and I continue to grapple with him on a regular basis.
As you start your journaling practice, don’t let your Inner Critic get the better of you. In the next section, I’ll explain how the Inner Critic develops and how you can keep him under control.
It’s good to be aware of the Inner Critic right from the beginning of your journaling journey. Some people have more trouble than others with this interfering entity, but pretty much everyone will experience his voice some of the time.
Right now you could be thinking: “The whole journaling idea is probably a waste of time because I’m not really a writer,” or “I doubt journaling will change my life: it seems a bit of a hippie thing to do.” These thoughts create resistance to the whole process, and that’s typical of the Inner Critic. As soon as you try something a little bit different, he goes off on a tirade.
So let’s unmask him and put him in his place!
Psychotherapist and writer Dennis Palumbo defines the Inner Critic as “the persistent, sometimes harsh and almost always shaming ‘voice’ that belittles or invalidates your work.”
It is, of course, part of you, a component of your psyche that manifests almost as a sub-personality of who you are. It’s linked to your ability to make judgments, discern your likes and dislikes, and form opinions so that you can make decisions.
The Inner Critic developed as soon as you had language skills and could understand your parents’ comments, particularly when they used the word “no” and rebuked you. You internalized these comments and began to hear their “no” even when they were not physically present. If your parents were often critical, then your Inner Critic became a powerful negative voice in your head, forbidding certain thoughts and behaviors. If your parents were very positive and encouraging then you may have experienced it far less. But the Inner Critic isn’t just a product of your family upbringing – teachers and other authority figures, and the wider society you grew up in, were all influential in its development.